Like virtually every other PC vendor on the planet, the folks at CTL are preparing to launch a tablet this summer. But there are a few reasons this one might actually be worth checking out.

First, CTL has been working with Intel’s Classmate PC netbook reference design for the past few years. That includes several touchscreen laptops with displays that you can fold down over the keyboard for use in tablet mode. And while these netbooks have run Windows XP or Windows 7, they’ve also included touch friendly program launchers that make it much easier to navigate the user interface with your fingertips. I wouldn’t venture so far as to say that the touch UI on these tablets was iPod/iPad-like in terms of ease of use, but it’s definitely better than a stock Windows desktop.

Second, the tablet will come in at an iPad-like price. CTL is hoping to sell the slate for about $499, which isn’t bad when you consider that in addition to the touch-friendly program launcher, you get a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, a capacitive multitouch 10.1 inch 1024 x 600 pixel display, 1-2GB of RAM, a 2MP webcam, 2 USB ports, mic and heaphone jacks, and VGA and Ethernet ports.It will be available with 160GB to 320GB hard drives or 16GB or 32GB SSD and optional 3G and GPS.

In other words, the CTL tablet will be able to handle a lot of things the iPad can’t, including video chat, Adobe Flash, and Windows applications.

After the break you can check out a video of a pre-production sample and take a look at a few more photos. The 2Go PC tablet should be available for purchase this summer.

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21 replies on “CTL to launch a $499 2GoPC Slate this summer”

  1. Ordered the CTL slate a month ago. Customer service was horrible from the start- constant (false) reasurances that “It’ll ship tomorrow…” When it finally DID ship out, UPS told me it was coming, not CTL. I got an email from CTL saying it shipped – AFTER it arrived!. When I finally did get this long awaited computer in my hands, it wouldnt even start up. Battery charged, power light on, fan on, nothing happening. Save you money dont by this junk.

  2. It weighs too much. My Lenovo X200s ultraportable weighs 2.4 lb (Lenovo spec) with a 4 cell battery (battery life of slightly over 2 hrs
    due to the SSD I put in it), 2.7 lb with a 6 cell battery (battery life of
    up to 5 hrs). And that comes with a Core 2 Duo CPU, great keyboard,
    and 12″ screen.

    The product needs to weigh 1 lb less, or 1.6 lb. Additionally, it should
    have a full size VGA port, an HDMI port, an SDHC (up to 32 GB) or SDXC (up to … TB) slot. Hopefully the HD is a 2.5″ one, so I can replace it with a 2.5″ SSD.

  3. Stylus? Don’t see much benefit of this over the gen 4 Classmate PC.

    2. It’s much sleeker, when I am surfing the web its mostly point and click.

      1. I guess you’re right, more of a direct competitor to the iPad, but it just doesn’t have any of the media content the iPad has. Hard to justify paying for a full OS, full price, but still have a worse internet tablet experience than the iPad as well as no apps (games, comics, newspapers, ibooks).

        They can’t possibly expect Windows 7 + simple full screen launcher shortcuts to give a better experience

        1. Worse internet experience than the iPad? I would disagree, being a Win 7 system it will support flash that alone should make it the superior web surfer with full access to the flash media available on the internet.

          Also why would you need “apps” when you can have full Windows applications that can run at the same time as other applications.

          1. You need “apps” because they are designed by definition for a touch interface. Being limited to “full Windows applications” does NOT sound like a selling point for a touchscreen device.

          2. Like sracer said….those ‘full windows applications’ are designed for keyboards, mouse clicks, and most of the time for something faster than an Atom.

            A Win7 tablet may give you a ‘full’ internet experience, but don’t kid yourself. Opening up Firefox on one of these things is not ever gonna compare to an iPad browsing the internet.

            And as for ‘why would you need apps’…I listed exactly why. 4 categories of apps that excel on the iPad because of their content deals and touch friendly optimization.

          3. I don’t like the iPad but I agree that Windows 7 won’t provide an equivalent experience because it simply is not optimized for a touch interface and the iPad is. Though this is not to say that the custom interface could not compensate but such a product will really need an equivalently optimized OS designed for a touch interface to ever compete with the iPad.

            Though if they ever did put an optimized OS, like the iPad has, on this then it will run rings around the iPad, which is only about 2x more powerful than iPhone/iTouch and thus far below the processing power of a ATOM.

            It really is the software that makes the iPad as good as it is and not the hardware, which is what the competitors really have to focus on if they wish to compete.

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